After nearly four years of war between Russia and Ukraine, the International Center for Strategic Studies has estimated the number of casualties among soldiers on both sides to be around 2 million, including dead, wounded and missing, according to a study released by the US research center yesterday Tuesday.
Russia’s advance is slow
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the death toll in Russia has reached 325,000 since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine nearly four years ago, bringing the total number of victims, including the dead, injured, and missing, to 1.2 million.
The center noted that no superpower had suffered so many casualties in any war since World War II, and stressed that the Russian military’s progress on the ground was extremely slow.
According to the research center, between February 2022 and December 2025, 500,000 to 600,000 casualties, including 100,000 to 140,000 deaths, were recorded as a result of the conflict, and Kiev suffered heavy losses.
The center reported that the total number of victims in Russia and Ukraine is estimated at around 1.8 million and could reach 2 million by spring 2026. Civilians accounted for most of the losses from the conflict.
The year with the most murders
The death toll in 2025 will be the highest since the war began in 2022, with more than 2,500 civilians killed, according to a report by the United Nations Human Rights Observatory in Ukraine released in early January.
Since February 24, 2022, the United Nations has recorded approximately 15,000 Ukrainian civilians killed and 40,600 injured. On the battlefield, Russian forces outnumber Ukrainian forces by about 3 to 1, and while Russia has enough population to support its own forces, Ukraine has lost a larger share of its small army.
Russia implemented the first compulsory conscription system after World War II, conscripting prisoners of war and debtors, and paying bounties to recruits, thereby maintaining its military strength despite suffering heavy losses.
Pressure on the war economy
Up to 15,000 North Korean soldiers fought alongside Russian forces, particularly in the western Kursk region, while South Korean intelligence officials and analysts reported that at least several hundred North Korean soldiers were believed to have died in the war.
He told Seth Jones, one of the study’s authors, that the war is a huge strain on Russia’s economy, as the war economy faces increasing pressures from declining industrialization, slowing growth to 0.6% in 2025, and the absence of globally competitive technology companies.
